Fred Waldron Phelps, Sr. (1929—2014) was an American pastor, former attorney, and former leader of the Westboro Baptist Church, a self-described Primitive Baptist, Calvinistcrazy cult church in Topeka, Kansas, with around 60 members, most of whom are members of his extended family. Phelps and his church are infamous for their fanatical and vitriolic anti-LGBT rhetoric, made manifest by many demonstrations outside funerals and public events, which feature "colorful" picket signs emblazoned with cartoons of men having anal sex and mantras that usually take the form of "God hates [insert bête noire du jour here]." His conduct violated both the spirit and the letter of Christianity as most people understand that religion. [2] Phelps garnered a widespread negative response, including a spot on the UK Home Office's list of individuals prohibited from entering the country. He had as of 2010 or so made fewer public appearances and had handed over control over the day-to-day administration of the WBC to his daughter, Shirley Phelps-Roper. An all male board of elders may have replaced her.[3][4]

Once upon a time, Fred Phelps was a civil rights lawyer who eventually was disbarred for committing perjury on a case he filed on his own behalf.[5] However, his whole life was devoted to homophobia, to the point of alienating the entire world. Phelps' obsession with homosexuality raises a number of interesting questions.

Phelps was estranged from four of his thirteen children, allegedly due to "discipline that amounted to abuse".[6] He was arrested repeatedly for violent and non-violent offenses and had four criminal convictions.[7]

Phelps had the dubious distinction of being the only person in recorded history who made Sean Hannity (among others) seem rational, although his daughter is also quite good at making Sean seem slightly less odious, in comparison.[8][9][10]

Phelps's organization, the Westboro Baptist Cult Church, is based in Topeka, Kansas, US. Its first public service was held on the afternoon of Sunday, November 27, 1955. For over two decades Topeka citizens endured Phelps family protests by the doors of their churches before normal services and memorial services. Worshipers had to walk through WBC protesters with distressing signs and hate speech, there was a prolonged campaign before the relevant authorities legislated requiring WBC protesters to remain at a distance from church entrances. WBC had plenty of local practice before taking protests nationwide.[11] The organisation has been widely called batshit crazy a hate group[12] and has been denounced by major Baptist organizations, such as the Baptist World Alliance and the Southern Baptist Convention (the two largest Baptist denominations in the US).[13]

“”Unfortunately, Fred's ideas have not died with him, but live on, not just among the members of the Westboro Baptist Church, but among the many communities and small minds that refuse to recognise the equality and humanity of our brothers and sisters on this small planet we share.

Nate Phelps notes the way people with different beliefs and orientations joined lovingly together to fight harassment from the Westboro Baptists and hopes communities uniting can be one positive legacy from his father.[17] The WBC held yet another protest less than a week after the death of Fred Phelps and Steve Drain found counter protesters expressing sympathy over the death incomprehensible.[18] Counter rallies give publicity to WBC but also give opponents the chance to promote social justice, to oppose intolerance, prejudice, xenophobia.[19] The future for WBC is speculative.[20]

Picketing in Topeka, with the group's signature rainbow-colored picket signs.

The church makes a habit of picketing funerals, particularly those of soldiers (regardless of their sexual orientation), on the grounds that said soldiers did wrong fighting for a nation that doesn't execute gay men ("fags", as God Phelps calls 'em). They have been conducting these pickets since 1991. Interestingly, WBC also pickets many Christian organizations, including Jerry Falwell's funeral, because those organizations fail to believe that gay people should be executed, the viewpoint which WBC holds (that, and because Falwell referred to Fred Phelps as a "first-class nut"). In addition to their primary webshite, "God Hates Fags", they also run a whole site family, with URLs generally on the pattern of "godhatesexample.com". (Considering the views of Fred Phelps, you'd almost think that when they say "God" they mean "Fred Phelps.") Given the number of things that their god hates, he probably also hates the website, example.com, too, and possibly even Google, which might end up finding example.com for those searching for it.

Another notable target is Matthew Shepard, a gay teen who was murdered in a homophobic assault — the protest at his funeral initially gained Fred Phelps a good deal of attention. Phelps also hates Sweden for their anti-discrimination policies with regards to anti-LGBT hate speech. He has even blamed the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami on Thailand's large Swedish tourist population (presumably God couldn't be bothered to hit Sweden itself). Other targets are countries in general, politicians, anyone prominent, and victims of both crime and natural disasters. Anti-Semitism has been prominent in Westboro as of late: they now target Jews as frequently as gay people.[21]

In 2012, the WBC apparently wanted to picket the funeral of Whitney Houston—but instead they decided to Photoshop themselves into a shot of the funeral procession.[22]

In 2013, the WBC announced plans to picket the funeral of Aaron Swartz at his synagogue in NYC. Despite Swartz's involvement with Wikileaks, his having founded Reddit and DemandProgress, and his lifelong activism for freedom of information and internet freedom, including his leadership in the successful battle to prevent SOPA and PIPA from becoming law, the WBC seemed not to have figured out that Swartz was one of Anonymous's biggest homeboys. The amorphous hacker-activist alliance swore to outnumber the WBC in order to allow Aaron's family, fiancee, and friends to have the funeral they deserved. Either being scared shitless by the prospect of being outnumbered by anons, getting stuck in traffic, or just being their normal flaky selves prevented them from picketing.

In March, 2015, WBC announced intentions to picket Leonard Nimoy's funeral. They were unable to do so because they were "unable to find it". Other Star Trek stars that have been targeted by the WBC have included George Takei and Zachary Quinto, who are openly gay, as well as William Shatner. Their posting about the event also took a swipe at Shatner, saying: "Leonard Nimoy's funeral is today but nobody's sharing where. So Westboro AND @William Shatner can't attend". It stands to reason that WBC does not like Star Trek or its fans very much either, considering the solid fact that Star Trek essentially stands for everything they're against.[23]

Westboro has recently taken to picketing schools, community colleges and universities, claiming children and young people are not properly trained up in Godliness.[24] A proposed countertactic is to confront them with silence.[25]

Phelps's sermons, some of which have been broadcast on radio or on his website, tended to last for around an hour, and consisted of an old man rambling incoherently to himself, getting agitated and shouting every few minutes, and quote mining the scriptures to support his warped and hateful attitudes.

Westboro Baptist Church consists mostly of Phelps's own family (though apparently not his entire family).[28] Nine of the thirteen children of Fred Phelps had are still with the WBC but most of them left for some time. Those outside lose touch with their family, friends, identity, meaning in life and social structure and, if they believe WBC teachings, are in continual fear of Hell. Those who return penitent claim they get loving support and belong again but must obey WBC demands.[29]

WBC displays many of the indicators of being an abusive, coercive cult[30] though the excommunication of Fred Phelps shows he was not a charismatic cult leader in old age.[15]Even the KKK has protested against it (and vice versa, incidentally).[31][32]

It's also considered very much an open question whether the Westboro Baptist Church is a church in fact as well as in name, or whether its churchness is simply a convenient legal façade with important benefits in the areas of taxes, finance, and First Amendment protections. Not many bona fide churches have a congregation composed (almost) entirely of one family, and the stunningly high proportion of lawyers among them is an added note of interest.

In 2012 British comedian Russell Brand did an interview with two of the members of the church on his show Brand X with Russell Brand. The two showed up looking like biker gang wannabes. After a brief and largely mocking interview, Russell brought on three gay friends, who also largely mocked the two. Oh, and they gave him a sign that said "Fag Pimp Brand", a moniker he embraced for the episode.[33]

The elect are the people whom God has foreordained to salvation. All others are reprobates, who have been created for the express purpose of being sent to Hell. This is the Calvinist belief of unconditional election, a.k.a. "double predestination," which is a form of determinism; it explains why the Westboro Baptist Church protests aren't about proselytizing. The intent of their protests is to thank God for smiting us.

Those whom God chooses to condemn, he causes to sin by "hardening their hearts" against himself.

It is the duty of the elect to proclaim God's word (even though God will not cause the reprobates to listen). Their goal is not to win converts, or to "save" others, but simply to gloat rebuke others for their sins.

No human being can say who is among the elect but those outside the WBC are certainly damned.[29]

It is also the duty of the elect to praise and thank God for all such judgments and totally not because they're a bunch of assholes. This is why the Phelps family is often seen with signs reading "Thank God for 9/11" and "Thank God for Dead Soldiers". They offered similar thanks for the recent $11 million judgment against them, because they see it as proof that God is hardening the hearts of men against them.

WBC members told Rebecca Barrett-Fox many times the Second Coming of Jesus would happen during the life time of Fred Phelps.[29] As with every doomsday prophecy, this one failed completely.

Also, if you don't keep your kids out of public schools (where kids apparently shoot each other in the face repeatedly), don't teach them about God enough, or support stem cell research, you are joining the feast of "bitch burgers, OBAMA FRIES, and slut shakes," and thus eating your children.[34] Their obsession with homosexuality appears to be the result of the widespread acceptance of homosexuality in the world. For the members of the WBC, all sins separate man from God, and they do not claim that the elect are without sin. However, according to their beliefs, people must sincerely repent of their sins before they can be forgiven. For the members of the WBC, "gay pride" and the acceptance of homosexuality is tantamount to having "murderer pride" or thinking of child rape as being just another, equally valid form of sexual expression. Anyone who doesn't condemn homosexuality as evil is, according to the WBC, a "fag enabler", and deserving of divine retribution. Fred Phelps got emotional and refused to talk further to anyone who asked if he personally had homosexual inclinations.[35]

From the 1970s to the 1990s Phelps was a supporter of the Democratic Party, and was heavily involved at the state level. He ran for governor several times, but failed to get the Democratic nomination every time and never got past the primary. In 1988, he backed Al Gore for the Democratic nomination since Gore opposed a "gay bill of rights" placed for vote in 1984, while opposing Clinton's re-election later due to support of homosexual rights. In 1992, he managed to get 31% of the Democratic primary vote for US Senate. He also had 2 mercifully unsuccessful runs for mayor of Topeka, largely due to the lack of organization of the local party and the opposition of every sane person in the voting area.[36][37]

Nearly all conservatives try to disassociate themselves from Phelps and are embarrassed over the extreme vulgarity of WBC campaigns.[7] That said, some of Phelps's viewpoints are very similar to other members of the religious right.[note 2] Like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, Phelps associates recent tragedies experienced by the United States with God's wrath for the nation's growing acceptance of homosexuality.[note 3] The difference between them lies in Phelps's acceptance, and even active encouragement, of these actions as part of God's will, while Robertson apparently thinks God is going too far by letting so many Christians die.

The extreme hate of Phelps's church has led to a multitude of vigilante responses, some of which have been violent, most of which are non-violent. The Patriot Guard Riders are a group that physically blocks the presence of the Westboro Baptist Church, and students at a school counter-protested the Church. The Phelps family also seemed to take offense to a reporter's very friendly questions during an interview.[39]

For a time, the parody religion meme "God Hates Figs" was popular in colleges and online, under the theory that if you can't beat 'em, make fun of 'em. Another such parody was entitled "God Hates Shrimp", whose founder called up the Phelpses on their radio show.

At one instance, when the church was protesting a funeral at Topeka, Kansas, someone slashed the tires of their van. They drove all over Topeka, trying to find someone that would fix the problem, and every repair service told them that they wouldn't help them.

On a more positive note some presumably Universalists from a liberalMethodist group wrote, "If grace is true, then God's love is welcoming Fred among the saints." Others disagree.[40]

Most of his spiritually malformed spawn are lawyers as Phelps was, and they routinely threaten to sue anyone who interferes with their hatemongering.

In 2007, the family of Lance Corporal Matthew A. Snyder were awarded $2.9 million in compensatory damages and a further $8 million in punitive damages for invasion of privacy and infliction of emotional distress after Phelps and his fellow hatemongers had protested at Snyder's funeral by displaying signs including one that said "Thank God for Dead Soldiers".[41] Phelps predicted that a higher court would overturn the decision "in five minutes" on freedom of speech grounds, and was proved right: the 4th Circuit Court of Appeal overturned the decision in September 2009, ordering Snyder's family to pay costs of $16,510.[42][43] The family appealed to the Supreme Court in March 2010[44] and appealed for donations in order to keep the case going.[43] March 2, 2011, The Supreme Court Ruled in favor of the WBC in an 8-1 decision, Justice Alito being the lone dissenter.[45][46]

In late February 2011, the WBC claimed that Anonymous had threatened to take down their sites. Anonymous claimed it was an inside job, just an attempt to gain publicity, and not a genuine threat of attack.

On 27 February, the David Pakman Show hosted Shirley Phelps-Roper and a member of Anonymous on a live call-in show. During the course of the ten minute segment, after denying previous threats, and in response to the shrill Godbotherer's claims of invincibility, the representative from Anonymous pointed out that Anonymous had left a message on their server. He - or they - then proceeded to hack the site, which went down for a short while.[47]

Some folks claim the WBC was behind the threat, as they hoped to encourage hackers and later sue them.[48]

After the Sandy Hook massacre, some part of Anonymous has released phone numbers and addresses of the clan to the internet after they cheerfully applauded the murder of over twenty young children.[49] If Westboro wanted attention from Anonymous now, they certainly got it.[50]

Many sources agree that Phelps regularly beat his children, especially his estranged sons, Nate and Mark Phelps[51]. An exposé called Addicted to Hate, written by estranged members, sheds light on life with Phelps. Two of his children were briefly taken into protective custody after marks of abuse were found, but Phelps intimidated the Topeka authorities into dropping the case; the records of this would have been destroyed had he not sued the Topeka Public Schools over the matter. One Christmas Day, Phelps beat his son Nate into shock with more than 200 strokes from a mattock handle after receiving a report that he had nicked some bulbs for Christmas lights.[30]

Phelps also encouraged husbands in his congregation to punch their wives; indeed, it was reported that one fellow took this to heart and later had to call Phelps for bail.[30] Three of the children say Mrs. Phelps was thrown down a flight of stairs.[30][52]

Nate Phelps[53] finally ran away from home on his 18th birthday. He now lives in Canada, is an atheist, works as a public speaker on LGBT rights and the connection between religious extremism and child abuse, and is writing a book about his life as the son of Fred Phelps as well as the subject of a documentary currently in production.[54]

Nate Phelps claimed in 2014 that Fred Phelps was near death in a hospice after the rest of the family excommunicated him for undisclosed reason. The family did not allow other excommunicated family members to visit Fred Phelps while he was dying.[35]

“”It was an unusual family by any account. From a young age, Fred Phelps' children earned a major part of the family's income, perhaps even all of it, when they were required to sell hate-laced candy door-to-door for hours after school each day.[55]

Fred Phelps spent so much time hating everyone and beating his kids he couldn't be bothered to provide for his family, making his children earn most, if not all, of the money.

Perhaps because Fred Phelps was getting too old, Margie Phelps played a more prominent role in the WBC. A British youngster (Harry Moseley) died in 2011 from a brain tumour at the age of 11, after raising £500,000 for charity.[56] Then Margie wrote to Harry's devastated family telling them they should have taught him about Heaven and Hell instead of encouraging him to raise money for charity and help people. While Americans might be used to that type of unpleasantness from the WBC, people in the UK were surprised and shocked.[57]

Shirley Phelps-Roper (one of Phelps' children) was the church's most active spokesperson, ran the church's day-to-day operations and was in charge of organizing their many protests. By being so active in the church and speaking on its behalf so often, Phelps-Roper has likely doomed the lot of them to hell.[note 4] She was featured heavily in the 2007 BBC documentary The Most Hated Family in America and the 2011 follow-up America's Most Hated Family in Crisis both presented by British documentarian Louis Theroux. She and her father were banned from the United Kingdom when they planned to protest in Basingstoke.[58] Other members of Westboro could be flagged and stopped if they attempted to enter the country.

One example of Phelps-Roper's outpourings took place on October 3 2006, when she managed to shock Fox News pundits Alan Colmes and Sean Hannity by claiming that the five Amish schoolgirls murdered earlier that week deserved to die.[59] Ironically, her first child (Samuel Phelps-Roper) was born out of wedlock, and everyone knows the Bible says that women who aren't virgins on their wedding night are to be put to death. It has been suggested that Phelps-Roper may have been ousted and an all male board of elders may have replaced her.[4][3]

In 2013, her daughters, Megan and Grace Phelps-Roper, publicly announced that they had left the WBC, and the family has since cut them off.[60][61]

Unlike most members of the church, Steve Drain is not related to the Phelps clan by blood or marriage and was not born into it. In the late 1990s, he made a documentary film, known variously as Hatemongers or Fred: The Movie, which involved extensive interactions with the Westboro church. Following the completion of the film, he and his family joined the church. Drain handles much of the multimedia for the church. This includes designing the protest signs, maintaining its website, and editing videos for the website.

Drain looks like he may be Phelps' successor,[14] judging by the video "Lying False Prophets Are To Blame" in which he is captioned as "Watchman", is wearing a suit and tie, and gives a very Fred-like rant.

This former member of the Westboro Baptist Church (daughter of the aforementioned Steve) has written a tell-all book called Banished: Surviving My Years in the Westboro Baptist Church.[62] In an interview, Drain hinted at the possibility that Phelps may have been a self-hating gay. While she hasn't actually directly stated that Phelps was gay, the possibility raises the question of Haggard's Law.[63]

Fred hatesJon Stewart and his hooligan sidekick Stephen Colbert. For someone who seemed to hate sex, he sure was obsessed with coming. Note that this is probably the only time someone has claimed that The Daily Show was predicted in Biblical prophecy.

It's left up to the reader as to which one of these fates is more appropriate.

On March 16 Steve Drain denied a statement from Nate Phelps that his father was near death, but admitted Phelps Sr. was in a hospice. Drain claimed that Phelps Sr. "has a couple things going on (...) The source that says he's near death is not well informed". [108]

On March 20 Fred Phelps got to learn first-hand who God actually hated, if anyone. [109] Shortly after Fred's death, members of the church posted a eulogy which oddly didn't talk very much about him at all. [110] However, they did release a statement that (ironically) thanked God that Fred Phelps died.

The Internet mourned not the death of Phelps, but reactions were still mixed. Many rejoiced loudly and promised to piss on his grave. Others suggested that the ultimate form of retaliation is to respect Phelps more than he ever respected the world. Others said that we should simply forget Phelps forever and ignore what remains of his church, to prevent him from ever developing a legacy.

It was rumored that the heavy metal band Slayer would be protesting Fred Phelps' funeral, some even suggesting that the band members had set up camp outside the church in Topeka. Such rumors were dismissed by spokespersons of the band. Phelps' daughter, Margie, stated that no funeral will be arranged for her late father, and no details of his burial have been revealed. [note 6]

Around the same time as rumours of Phelps' pending demise started to circulate, there were rumblings that he had, in fact, been excommunicated from the church he'd founded. This followed a supposed power struggle within the church, which pitted a bunch of male elders, led by Steve Drain, against Phelps' daughter, Shirley. Initial reports claimed that Phelps had been shown the door, for "advocating a kinder approach between church members."[112]

However, after his death, his grandson, Zacharias Phelps-Roper, left the cult and later provided more insight on what happened:

“”Specifically, on the day that he was excommunicated, he stood outside of the front door of the church (but not within anyone's earshot but a few members of WBC who happened to be in the immediate vicinity)... I say, he spoke words to this effect to the Equality House: "You are good people." I feel like he had a change of heart after my grandmother nearly passed away, and he felt the pangs of loss ... he waited for news of her every day and night while she was in intensive care. I think this triggered a chain reaction whereby he developed great empathy for others... which would explain why he would support Planting Peace's anti-suicide and anti-bullying platforms, and their charities across the world.... I love my grandfather! And I believe people DO change, if they are inspired enough! [113]

The family allegedly excommunicated him for "rank blasphemy" for his last-minute Darth Vader-like conversion from the "dark side", which unfortunately won't be enough to save him from hell according to his own Calvinist dogma.

↑Ed Farrell, Vice Mayor of a large Arizona town stated, "This world needs to get back to the biblical standards that our God made for us. This guy was not afraid to preach it, and I respect that. … I am just having a hard time with all of this[sic] gay and lesbian rights thing." Farrell later retracted after finding out that WBC campaign against the military and that The Onion is a satirical magazine.[38]]

↑1 Corinthians 14:34-35: "Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church."